Bowl Madness.

Yesterday morning when I stumbled out into the living room around 7:30 (yes, A.M.) the dogs had been up since about six.  Often I am actually up with them at six, but not yesterday.  So naturally, having been without meaningful contact with me since almost nine the night before, they were ecstatic to see me.  You know, you really shouldn’t believe them when they tell you they don’t have meaningful contact with me at night. We have a sweet bedtime ritual which I’ll tell you about sometime. They also sleep in my bedroom.  While it is true they are not allowed to sleep in bed with me they each do have their own bed in my bedroom and experts say one of the greatest forms of intimacy is sharing a sleeping space.  So let me rephrase my above statement:  my dogs, having been without in my face, eye contact inducing, baby-voice eliciting, food giving, back scratching, toy-throwing, what-are-you-doing-can-you-do-it-closer-to-the-floor? contact for almost eight hours, were ecstatic to see me upright. 

Ket ran around and almost got her toes stuck in her ears.  Lilly stood on the sofa and barked. And Oliver, my precious boy Oliver, could not find Ducky-remnants to hold in his mandibles while wiggling in happy circles around me.  So…. he improvised…

What in the world? 

HEY MOM! 

I had brought in my dogs’ old green water bowls from my Jeep for cleaning.  I always keep them on hand for when we are out and about.  It’s very dry and hot here.  Hydration for canine and human creatures becomes supremely important.  Oliver decided if he couldn’t find Ducky-remnants to bring me he would bring me a bowl.  Awe. 

When I finally finished laughing so hard I couldn’t talk I told him to drop it. 

I felt like I’d canceled Christmas.  I swear to you I said “drop it” in a gentle voice still garbled with laughter, I did. But Oliver is very sensitive.  He forgot about his sadness the moment I gave him breakfast.  (Please ignore the eye booger.  Lilly and Ket hadn’t gotten him to lay down for his morning grooming yet… it isn’t my job to clean his eye boogers it is Ket and Lilly’s… really.  They get mad when I take away their meaningful work.) 

As a side note, since I’ve already blogged twice in the last week about my lack of housekeeping skills:  that brown stuff on the floor is actually not dirt.  The previous owner of The Cottage had a rug down on the floor and the backing melted onto the wood.  Yes, I live in a desert.  Rug backings can melt onto floors even inside a house.  I have not yet had time between moving in, starting grad school, and continuing work to figure out how to a.) remove it and b.) find the time to remove it.  No.  Mopping the floor with good old soap and water doesn’t work.  Believe it or not I have tried that at least twice now.

Let me reiterate.  That is not dirt. I am honest about my dirt.  But even I don’t let my floors get that muddy.